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I've always seen the Borg as rather utilitarian; this would seem like an odd concern, particularly since as far as we know the will of the Collective is entirely dominant; one has to be seperated from the Collective before individuality can manifest. No doubt the Borg would say sentimentality is irrelevant. Besides, sex is not equal to gender, a cultural concept the Borg wouldn't possess, and merely having a sex most assuredly does not entail love, which, if it exists, is reserved to higher-thinking entities than Borg drones.
That said, perhaps in refutation to one of my earlier points, it does occur that maybe the species from which the original Borg are descended from were themselves sexless, and incubating neuter drones mere inertia. Problem with that is one would have to figure out where a queen first entered the equation, and why she--and the attributes of her sex--became integral to the Borg.
No, you're remembering correctly. GTTS established that the Borg have two types of drones: Drones grown by the Collective itself, which are usually grown neuter, and drones assimilated from the Collective's victims. When the Federation first encountered the Borg in the 2360s, the majority of the Collective's drones were neuter, but most of them were killed during the war with Species 8472. The Collective moved to quickly replenish its numbers by engaging in an aggressive campaign of assimilations, causing the majority of drones to become natural-born, assimilated victims.
The androgynous incubated drones didn't make up the majority of the Collective prior to the 8472 war; we have plenty of evidence from VGR that assimilation was routine even then. Rather, it was the drones on the outskirts of Borg territory, the ones most removed from the Queen's control, that were mostly incubated. This is because assimilated drones often had a tendency to reassert their old identities when cut off from the Collective (as seen in "Survival Instinct") while incubated drones (such as Hugh) had no former identity to replace their Borg conditioning and were thus "trustworthy" to continue functioning as Borg drones even if cut off from contact. At least, that's how I tried to explain the difference between TNG-style drones (on the Borg's far-flung frontier) and FC/VGR-style drones (from the Delta-Quadrant core of their territory).
As for why those drones on the periphery weren't all female to be potential Queens, that's probably because the primary Queen didn't deem it likely that peripheral drones would be the source of a replacement Queen, and probably didn't like the idea of competition if a remote ship got cut off and "grew" its own Queen as in Resistance. Maybe that's why it took the supercube's Borg two years before they started to grow a new Queen -- because that protocol was a last-ditch emergency measure when a community of Borg had been cut off from the Queen for long enough that no reunion with the core seemed likely.
Personally, I suspect that Seven of Nine was intended as a potential "replacement Queen," kept in reserve in case a new Queen was needed. That would explain why she was stored in a special, protected chamber (as seen in "Scorpion, Part 2") and seemed to have more autonomy than a typical drone.
As for why the Queen is always female, I never came up with a good excuse for that. In light of Destiny, though, I assume it's because
the Queen is basically the remnant of the mind of the Caeliar female Sedin. So its femininity is just an atavistic echo of that old identity. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that the humans who became the first drones were members of Erika Hernandez's crew and thus had a mental image of "leader = female."
As for why those drones on the periphery weren't all female to be potential Queens, that's probably because the primary Queen didn't deem it likely that peripheral drones would be the source of a replacement Queen, and probably didn't like the idea of competition if a remote ship got cut off and "grew" its own Queen as in Resistance. Maybe that's why it took the supercube's Borg two years before they started to grow a new Queen -- because that protocol was a last-ditch emergency measure when a community of Borg had been cut off from the Queen for long enough that no reunion with the core seemed likely.
...makes sense to me. We've seen examples of rogue Borg communities who had been seperated from the Collective in both TNG and VOY who are/become hostile to the Collective; it's not too much of a stretch to speculate that such things have happened in the past, and the Collective eventually switched to neuter drones to make it less likely that they would need to confront rival Queens and rival Hives. And if we accept that scenario, then some interesting things happen: it's possible that the Hive Mind we're used to dealing with isn't even the 'original' Borg Hive Mind, but an emergeant one that eventually consumed its parent. If we follow Vendetta (as Before Dishonour would have us do), such semi-regular internecine conflict could even account for why the Borg haven't yet overrun the galaxy despite being contemporaries of the Preservers.
They can't possibly be that utilitarian. If they were, they'd just concentrate on the efficient exploitation of resources within their own territory instead of expending all sorts of resources on forcibly assimilating species with no desire to be assimilated. And we know for a fact that they essentially worship the Omega Molecule as a symbol of perfection, even though the damn thing is just an extremely powerful energy source. So it's an established fact that the Borg engage in irrational, ideological behavior sometimes.
this would seem like an odd concern, particularly since as far as we know the will of the Collective is entirely dominant; one has to be seperated from the Collective before individuality can manifest. No doubt the Borg would say sentimentality is irrelevant. Besides, sex is not equal to gender, a cultural concept the Borg wouldn't possess, and merely having a sex most assuredly does not entail love, which, if it exists, is reserved to higher-thinking entities than Borg drones.
I said it might be an ideological motivation, not a rational one.
Also, the "Destiny" trilogy establishes that the original species that comprised the first Borg -- Humans and Caeliar -- possessed both sex and gender. The Caeliar were biologically sexless, since they possessed synthetic bodies, but they had originally been a biological species and therefore retained gender identities even into their synthetic existence.
No, you're remembering correctly. GTTS established that the Borg have two types of drones: Drones grown by the Collective itself, which are usually grown neuter, and drones assimilated from the Collective's victims. When the Federation first encountered the Borg in the 2360s, the majority of the Collective's drones were neuter, but most of them were killed during the war with Species 8472. The Collective moved to quickly replenish its numbers by engaging in an aggressive campaign of assimilations, causing the majority of drones to become natural-born, assimilated victims.
The androgynous incubated drones didn't make up the majority of the Collective prior to the 8472 war; we have plenty of evidence from VGR that assimilation was routine even then. Rather, it was the drones on the outskirts of Borg territory, the ones most removed from the Queen's control, that were mostly incubated. This is because assimilated drones often had a tendency to reassert their old identities when cut off from the Collective (as seen in "Survival Instinct") while incubated drones (such as Hugh) had no former identity to replace their Borg conditioning and were thus "trustworthy" to continue functioning as Borg drones even if cut off from contact. At least, that's how I tried to explain the difference between TNG-style drones (on the Borg's far-flung frontier) and FC/VGR-style drones (from the Delta-Quadrant core of their territory).
As for why those drones on the periphery weren't all female to be potential Queens, that's probably because the primary Queen didn't deem it likely that peripheral drones would be the source of a replacement Queen, and probably didn't like the idea of competition if a remote ship got cut off and "grew" its own Queen as in Resistance. Maybe that's why it took the supercube's Borg two years before they started to grow a new Queen -- because that protocol was a last-ditch emergency measure when a community of Borg had been cut off from the Queen for long enough that no reunion with the core seemed likely.
I don't see why the existence of another Queen would be a serious issue. The Queen from a cut-off community would just be another embodiment of the Royal Protocol -- in essence, just a separate, independent copy of the same entity. If they were to re-establish contact, the Queens would probably just "synch up" (upload memories with one-another).
Also, "Destiny" established in Book III on page 252 that the Queen has inhabited multiple bodies before. "Even when the Borg Queen had been forced in times past to manifest in multiple bodies at once, all of her avatars had represented the same will, the same mind, the same purpose. The guiding voice had always been unique and inimitable." I don't see how a second Queen generated from the Royal Protocol that's out of contact with the main Collective before re-establishing such a link would be any different from having multiple avatars for the Queen.
Personally, I suspect that Seven of Nine was intended as a potential "replacement Queen," kept in reserve in case a new Queen was needed. That would explain why she was stored in a special, protected chamber (as seen in "Scorpion, Part 2") and seemed to have more autonomy than a typical drone.
Well, as I understand the structure of the Collective based upon things like "Survival Instinct" and what's established in "Destiny," I don't see that there's any reason to think that Seven had any more autonomy than other drones. The sense that I get is that whilst a remnant of each individual's personality continues to exist within the assimilated drone, intact but unable to affect their own behavior, the person also becomes the victim of mind control -- much of their conscious mind is re-written to believe in and support the Borg and its objectives. Each mind-controlled mind is then linked to the rest through the Collective, and all receive instructions from the Queen. The drones would tend to be very passive in most situations, but are capable of individually-generated thoughts, feelings, and decisions in cases where they need to continue to function without a Queen, such as how Seven's group tried to continue to function as Borg in "Survival Instinct" before their original personalities re-asserted themselves. (The bit where one drone says to the other that they do not exist to serve the Collective, that "that's what they want us to think," struck me as being akin to someone over-coming brainwashing, not merely recovering from an external force gaining control of their motor functions.) However, because their thoughts and goals are limited by Borg programming, the drones tend to need a Queen -- who is herself essentially a drone who is just as brainwashed in support of Borg ideology and objectives, but who is not passive, but, rather, is programed to be assertive and imaginative through the Royal Protocol, coordinating and controlling the Collective and seeking to satisfy the underlying emotional and physical drives of the remnant of Sedin's mind, which itself continues to exist separately from the Queen and the drones.
As for why the Queen is always female, I never came up with a good excuse for that. In light of Destiny, though, I assume it's because
the Queen is basically the remnant of the mind of the Caeliar female Sedin. So its femininity is just an atavistic echo of that old identity. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that the humans who became the first drones were members of Erika Hernandez's crew and thus had a mental image of "leader = female."
I wonder if poor Kiona Thayer wasn't made into the first Borg Queen upon the "assimilation" of her, Graylock, and Pembleton into Sadin's consciousness. Sedin certainly seemed to gain the capacity for rational thought and long-term planning again once they were taken. That might explain how the early Collective could have engaged in complex planning and problem-solving even as Sedin continued to retain no memory of her previous identity, life, species, goals, or moral code.
Personally, I suspect that Seven of Nine was intended as a potential "replacement Queen," kept in reserve in case a new Queen was needed. That would explain why she was stored in a special, protected chamber (as seen in "Scorpion, Part 2") and seemed to have more autonomy than a typical drone.
If I remember correctly, I believe the Homecoming/The Farther Shore story did suggest that Seven was intended to become the next embodiment of the Borg Queen.
that's probably because the primary Queen didn't deem it likely that peripheral drones would be the source of a replacement Queen, and probably didn't like the idea of competition
^^No, Sci is right -- that doesn't work for Borg Queens, since they're all just embodiments of the same program, and I should've remembered that. In fact, I think the passage from Destiny that Sci alluded to there was based in part on some ideas that Dave and I discussed in an e-mail exchange while coordinating our respective Borg books, so I really have no excuse for forgetting that.
